PAL SINGH ARIF, SANT (1873-1958), mystic and poet, was born on Maghar sudi 15, 1930 Bk/4 December 1873, the son of Gurdit Singh Sandhu and Sahib Kaur of the village of Paddhari, now in Amritsar district of the Punjab. He learnt to read and write Punjabi from the village granthi

ASA, one of the thirty one ragas or musical measures into which compositions comprising the Sikh holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, except the Japu, are cast and in which they are meant to be recited and sung. This raga is important in the Sikh system of music, and is said

NIHAL SINGH THAKUR (1808-1895), Sikh theologian and musician, was born at Amritsar on 7 Phagun 1864 Bk/17 February 1808 to Bhai Mahal Singh and Mata Basi. Bhai Mahal Singh lived in the village of Sayyid ki Sarai in Gujjarkhan tahsil of Rawalpindi district, now in Pakistan, and had come to

MAHALA, traditionally pronounced mahalla, appears in Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, as a special term to credit the authorship of the compositions of the Gurus recorded in it. Mahala here refers to the person of the Guru specified by a numeral following it which signifies his position in the

MANGA, BHAI, a musician by profession was among Guru Nanak`s leading disciples. He has been described by Bhai Gurdas, Varan, XI. 13, as a lover of gurbani or the Guru`s word.

HIRA SINGH RAGI, BHAI (1879-1926), eminent exponent of Sikh devotional music, was born in 1879 at Faruka, in Shahpur district, now in Pakistan. His father`s name was Bhai Bhag Singh and mother`s Satbharai. Bhag Singh was well versed in classical music and played string instruments such as sdraizgi and

SUNDAR SINGH, RAGI (1892-1937), head musician at Sri Harimandar at Amritsar, was born at Amritsar in 1892, the son of Bahi Amar Singh Arora, himself a musician of considerable standing. Sundar Singh served his apprenticeship with Bhai Atra, a well known rababi (rebeckplayer), who was a disciple of Bhai Moti,

ASTPADI, from Sanskrit astapada, astapad or astapadf, is a poetic composition comprising ast or eight padas or stanzas. No specific rhyme scheme, measure or burden is prescribed for it, but all the eight stanzas must be in the same metre and measure. Lines in each stanza are generally rhymed.

JAVALA SINGH, BHAI SAHIB (1872-1952), a renowned exponent of the Sikh devotional music, was born in 1872 at the village of  Saidpur in Kapurthala district of the Punjab. His father, Bhai Deva Singh and grandfather, Parijab Singh were in their day celebrated rdgis or musicians who recited Sikh kirtan

VAR, a verse form in Punjabi popular in folklore as well as in refined poetry. In the old bardic tradition of the Punjab, var meant the poem itself with its typical theme as also the form in which it was cast. The earliest vars were ballads of battles and

ALAHUNI,(mournful song by women) When a person dies. women cry and often sing songs in chorus in praise Of the deceased. There is a lot of pessimism in, such songs. Generally professional women used to lead in the singing of mourning songs. Guru Nanak used this form of poetry

KAFI (Arabic Qafi), literally stands for the leader, the enlightener, one who fulfils the need. In poetics it denotes the refrain in a song or hymn, and is also the title given to a poetic form in Arabic as well as in Indian literature. Guru Nanak was the first to